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We’ve all used garlic in cooking before. But did you know it does more than just delight the taste buds? It is also fantastic for a number of medicinal uses. Garlic is in the same family as all the onions (the Allium family) and throughout history has been used as an aphrodisiac, plague repellant, to ward of vampires and demons and as an embalming agent.

Garlic can be used as a natural antibiotic by eating it raw, making a tea/broth with it or taking garlic tablets available at health food stores. This helps prevent and fight infections and colds. It is also good to eat garlic with oily or fatty meals as it can be used to help break down blood clots. It is very hypoglycemic which means that it helps lower blood sugar levels in diabetics. When garlic oil is rubbed into the skin it also acts as an insect repellent.

GROWING GARLIC

It can be expensive to buy good organic garlic at the market, but along with potatoes it is a very easy crop to grow.

Simply buy a few bulbs of organic garlic and split it up into its individual cloves. Plant each clove about twice its height under the soil with the pointy end pointing up. From each clove a whole bulb of garlic will grow beneath the ground and above ground long green leaves will grow. The bulb is ready to harvest when the green leaves have dried out completely. Lift out of the ground gently with a garden fork and pull out of the ground. Its best to harvest when the soil is dry to ensure clean bulbs.